Carlyle acquires 49% stake in China shopping malls

The investment was made by a vehicle advised by Carlyle Asia Real Estate (CARE). Financial terms have not been disclosed.

Both properties, Suzhou In-City Mall and Hangzhou Gudun In-City Mall, are located in tier-two cities and have foreign brands such as Wal-Mart, Sephora and Starbucks as tenants. Carlyle said that it expects a rise in both rent and capital value for retail properties as continuing urbanization and rising household disposable incomes drive growth in the sector.

SCP has also partnered with Harvest Capital, CapitaLand, Morgan Stanley, PAG, Wal-Mart and Simon Property Group on other projects. It works on design, development, leasing and management of regional shopping malls.

CARE invests in value-add opportunities across all real estate sectors, and also in core assets on behalf of its separate accounts. In China, CARE has made 14 investments with a total capitalization of $2.5 billion.

Carlyle paid $267 million in April for Central Plaza, a Shanghai office building owned by Singapore real estate fund Forterra Trust. The deal came a few months after The Blackstone Group acquired Huaming Imperial Building, also in Shanghai.

Carlyle has two Asia-focused real estate funds - the first closing in 2005 at $410 million and the second closing in 2010 at $485 million.

Blackstone, arguably the most active real estate investor in Asia among the global buyout firms, with around $2.5 billion deployed, announced last December that it would launch its debut regional property fund. The firm is reported to be targeting $4 billion for the fund, which would make it the largest real-estate fund ever devoted to the region.

 

 

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Real estate
• Real estate
• The Carlyle Group
• Real estate
• China